Inquisition

Senator Inhofe, the chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, has begun investigating the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). New Scientist reports:

Inhofe has repeatedly written to NCAR and other agencies demanding details about financial and contractual arrangements with their employees and with federal funding agencies such as the National Science Foundation (NSF). In a letter to the NSF in February, Inhofe said he needed the information to help him in "researching, analyzing and understanding the science of global climate change". Inhofe has a record of hostility to the idea of climate change, having asked on the Senate floor in July 2003: "Could it be that man-made global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people? It sure sounds like it."

Hmm. Could it be the that the Republican from Oklahoma is really trying to intimidate the scientific community and stifle research? It sure sounds like it.

And, as the New Scientist article reveals, it fits a pattern. Read on.